Preparatory sketches

preparatory sketches for 'The Eternal Now'

Work has started on paintings towards my first exhibition that I am aiming for in October. The pictures above are just some of the preparatory sketches I'm working on before making a start on the final paintings. I aim to complete around 20 large scale paintings by the end of the summer 2014. 

The working title for these paintings will be called 'The Eternal Now' I am exploring the idea that there is no such thing as the past or present, as it exists only in the 'Now'. I am also looking into how we translate the real world through symbols that we have devised over generations to represent what we see and hear. But through this I feel that we as a whole have become ever increasingly separated (or maybe we think we are detached) from the universe itself. What is? This for me is the biggest question. Family and friends have kindly posed for these paintings. I am asking them to stare intently into nothingness, I want to try and capture the connection we have with the real and expose the fact that us and the universe are one and the same.